That's a more generous perspective from which to view Robert's inspiration than the one I described, and I'll ponder it.

Right you are! Thanks for pointing that out; I've made the correction.

There are dozens of little moments I wish I'd had time and space to cram into this review, and the way that countdown meshes into the theme song tops the list. (Also in the top ten: "Look, the truth about cats and dogs is—")

You and me both: Not a single picture of Edith was provided in this week's batch of promotional photos, which is where the typical glamorous (and beautifully staged) still photos come from.

Edith does have a lady's maid; we just don't see her on-screen often. She's Madge, and just last week I was wondering if she was still around, when suddenly Mrs. Hughes mentioned that someone should warn her that Edith had had confirmation of Michael's death.

I could absolutely be wrong about Railly and Jones being the same person. The show keeps drawing parallels between them, but those may be poetic rather than literal.

He certainly behaves as if he's in proximity to another version of himself: woozy, disoriented. They're the same symptoms he exhibited in "Atari," when time travel brought him in proximity with himself, and no other paradoxical object/being has caused those in him.

I have the quote you're talking about in my notes: The Pallid Man says to Cassie, "I was hoping for the M-510 to be already cultivated, but I can settle for this. Inside that old meat is a centuries-old virus.”

Not weird, just a piece of information we have that Cole doesn't. A moment of dramatic irony, maybe. It's an observation about the scene, and about their relationship, and about the show.

Ahahahaha, I described Edith earlier this week as "a walking sad trombone."

Thank you for confirming that!

Thanks for the confirmation!

How do you know you're not "a commenter"?

You're saying this conversation, in which Bates confronts Anna about Mary's unlikely need for contraceptives, aired on PBS's broadcast last night?

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll make a correction.

The phrase "They've found him now, or what's left of him" immediately made me wonder if Gregson will show up in a year, perplexed to find himself presumed dead.

He never explicitly threatened her, but he did bluster loudly in a public place about sharing her bed, repeatedly raising his voice on the most potentially embarrassing revelations. The threat of exposure was implicit, and maybe largely unconscious on his part, but it was clear.

I must retract my assertion from last week! I was sure Bates' search for a bandage would turn up the device, but instead it was his search for the button box.

Oh, I hope so to: let them be good in-laws, friends, and colleagues, because they seem to center and ground each other like no other relationship on the show. '

Let me be clearer: I feel like Robert's frequent practical and financial errors are a counterbalance to the show's innate sympathy with his moral and philosophical position as the presumed-benevolent man of title and slowly vanishing authority, and that is what I find both tedious and predictable.